>>>>>Putting the 'a' in front of words like water - or as I've heard more commonly up North; breakfast/lunch/dinner- is regional. Particularly in the Northern Plains states you'll hear things like "Are you taking a lunch?" or "You need a breakfast first".
>>>>
>>>>Well we cannot be bothered learning all those colonial dialects...
>>>
>>>Former colonies ;-)
>>
>>...which never bothered to change the names of their dialects :).
>>
>>Speaking of various kinds of english one can hear, I found that I generally have no problems understanding most of the Brits (the Scots being the easiest, because they pronounce their r properly :); the Irish and the Ozzies take a couple of minutes to get used to; Canadians no problem at all; people from India mostly no problem, provided their vocabulary and grammar are sufficiently correct; most Europeans who learned some english at school, easy (with special kudos to the Dutch and Scandinavians, who seem to pick enough of it in a single semester or three); the few Koreans, Japanese and Vietnamese I met were probably second generation locals, so no problem there either (but for newcomers I can't say we spoke at all)... and then there's the special case of the US.
>>
>>I had about zero problems understanding the northerners, west coast people, new Mexicans (ahem, whichever way you call and spell them), north part of the east coast (including NYC and a few places in the Appalachians) and even some Texans. It's very easy to get to a southern accent as well, provided it's spoken clearly. It's the people who eat up their consonants, like many in Florida, and in my then neighborhood (mostly the black people, but not limited to) and a few Thai (who knows why), who are near incomprehensible to me. In some cases, they'd just feign the first consonant or two, and completely omit the rest. Can't distinguish lye from light... and then the guy at Home Depot, where I tried to buy lye (and mentioned its chemical name, rightly assuming he doesn't understand me) assumed I was talking like him, and sent me to aisle 17... lightbulbs, them halogen things that run on some chemistry.
>
>We could go on about this for hours. I have some work I intend to finish today so don't have hours, so will only say a couple of things.
>
>About 85% of Mexican Americans speak English as a first language in the home, so it's not hard to understand them. That they will not assimilate is a canard. That is the same thing that has been said about every immigrant group in the history of this country, always incorrectly. It was said about Irish, Italians, Germans, Polish, on and on and on, Maybe even a stray Serbian language lover, who knows? <g> One of the last things I worry about in the U.S. at this point is Mexican immigrants.
>
>One of my favorite language mishaps was after Hurricane Katrina, when a group of us went to Houston on a relief mission. We were evacuated ourselves from Houston due to Hurricane Rita (which was mostly a non event). In the middle of the night we stopped for the bathroom and more coffee at some 7-11 in rural Arkansas. I had too much coffee in me already and decided to compromise with Coke. It was my turn to drive and I needed all the caffeination I could get, coming on the heels of several days in which we weren't exactly getting a lot of sleep. I went over by the soda dispenser, completely standard, and didn't see the kind of logoed soda cups I was used to. Have I mentioned that I was only half coherent? The young guy at the counter, who, I don't want to seem unkind, seemed like exactly the kind of guy who would be working the night shift at a 9-11, said "The what ones." His Arkansas accent was so thick he made Bill Clinton sound like a Bostonian. "I'm looking for the Coke cups," I repeated. "The what ones," he repeated. What we had here was a failure to communicate. I finally figured out he was saying "The white ones, " white Styrofoam cups. And there they were.
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>I seem to keep bringing up that week so maybe it has been one of the most memorable of my life.


Now while in that part of the world, you have to learn what to ask for. It is considered proper to ask for a RC and Moon Pie. Only a Yankee would ask for anything else! In case you may have forgotten, RC is Royal Crown Cola. I will let you find the definition of Moon Pie. :)